Captain keen to see Diss Cricket Club continue last year's hard work in the Cecil Amey Opticians Norfolk Alliance Premier Division

Diss Cricket Club captain Mark Williamson is hoping that his side’s positive end to the 2018 campaign will hold them in good stead for the upcoming season.

Williamson’s men open up tomorrow with a home encounter against last season’s champions Fakenham (1pm).

By chance, the visitors to Rectory Meadow were the only team to get the better of Diss during the final seven games of last term – form that contributed to a sixth-placed finish in what was their first season back in the Cecil Amey Opticians Norfolk Alliance Premier Division following relegation in 2016.

Mark Williamson

And if they can match those achievements this time around, Williamson will be a content skipper.

“It was a good season last year but we do not want to get too far ahead of ourselves,” he said.

“Our aim first and foremost is to emulate what we did last year, but if we can get off to a good start who knows what can happen.

“We probably overachieved at times, but we showed towards the end of the season we can compete at this level.

“The way we finished was important because there was a point in the middle when we started wondering where our next win was coming from, but the end of the season put that right.

“The only side we lost twice to was Fakenham, which shows that while we were a bit inconsistent, we can match anyone.”

Williamson is pleased to have kept the majority of last season’s squad in place, although top-order batsman Chris Cooper has departed.

Cooper, who missed some of 2018 with an injury but still managed to score 425 runs across his 14 appearances, has opted to join Thetford.

On the plus side, Cooper’s place in the side is likely to go to Jebb Swallow – the recent arrival from Great Boulder in his native Australia, where he was voted the Eastern Goldfields Cricket Association’s best player last season.